Obama Has Nothing To Prove

In recent days it has become quite apparent that some Americans (mostly those working as correspondents for Fox News and their cowardly followers) are outraged with our president going to other nations abroad, acting like a civilized diplomat, and telling the truth about what our nation is all about. He told members of the G-20 that we were not a Christian nation, but a nation of citizens with the freedom of religion, which is true. He then went to Saudi Arabia and bowed to the king, as is customary in their country. Conservatives are upset because he has not been to church in the 11 weeks of his presidency, even though he was very clear during his campaign that although he was a Christian he did not go to church very regularly. They are outraged! "What is he doing to our nation?" they ask. Well, let me explain.

Obama is doing what everyone of us in this nation should be learning to do. He is living by the rights endowed to him as a U.S. citizen to practice religion as he sees fit, or to not practice religion at all. He is going to other countries and having the common courtesy to abide by the local customs instead of shoving some generic, low-brow form of American culture down the throats of the rest of the world. When he greets members of other nations, he takes the time on the plane ride to learn how to say, "Hello," in their language. This is not a difficult task, and quite frankly is something anyone can and should do if visiting another country. It goes a long way in extending a signal of peace and civility to our neighbors. It also says to them that we are not monolingual idiots incapable of comprehending other languages while the rest of the world speaks two, three, even four or five different languages before leaving high school.

Where this becomes an issue for the right-wing nut jobs of America is that they believe it makes Obama look weak to be so friendly and peaceful with the rest of the world. They like the image we have portrayed for the last eight years of being hard-ass cowboys with the largest military in human history. They like scaring the shit out of the rest of the world and watching them squirm under the thumb of a giant nation. Obama, along with the 60% of Americans who gleefully approve of his policies so far, seem to understand that a well-spoken, attractive, worldclass educated, bi-lingual man--with a beautiful, worldclass educated, formly corporate executive, bi-lingual wife, and two intelligent, compassionate children--who is president of the wealthiest, most powerful and well-armed nation in the history of humankind does not have to walk around in the world being paranoid and defensive and so scared of other world leaders that he needs to put up a front of power. He understands that his prescence is reminder enough of what America is capable of. His very being as a black man with his abilities democratically elected to lead a free nation is symbolic enough to the rest of the world that we do have classy, hardworking, intelligent citizens among us and we are capable of finding them and electing them as leaders. By bowing to other leaders in their country, he is sending the signal that when he is in someone else's country, he is a visitor and will behave like one. This then allows him the leverage to demand the same respect when leaders visit our country. In fact, the Obamas are so respectful and polite that the Queen of England actually let Michelle put her arm around her, when the custom is that no one ever touches the queen. It really isn't that complicated. It's how decent human beings interact with other human beings. Period. No games. No drama. Honesty and fair competition. We're in the lead, we don't have to work so damn hard to impress people.

What we are seeing is that the Obamas are defusing tension around the world with their calm respectful demeanor and sending a message that we are an open nation ready to talk through our problems like mature, educated people do. The world is well aware that we have 9,000 nuclear warheads pointed at every region of the world and that all it would take is this man's word to literally desimate a large portion of the globe. A man with that power needs to speak softly or people tend to get a little shaky. People respond to fear in many different ways. Some respond with pride and would rather die than be under the thumb of an aggressive super-power. That is what we do not want. That is the message Bush sent to the world as the threatened, childish little dumbass that he was. Now we have an adult who wants those proud poor (economically speaking) people of the world to feel that they are in the peaceful embrace of a giant who feels their pain. He wants them to know that we are not a nation of Christians that hate Muslims, that we are in fact, as he clearly stated, a nation of citizens with the right to worship as we please. As far as foreign policy is concerned--religion has no place in government. Thus, Obama does not, and should not, care what religion other world leaders abide by in their personal lives. He is saying, "We don't even care what religion our own citizens are. Hell, I haven't been to church in 11 weeks! Rather we care about understanding on a logical, secular level what other nations want for their citizens, why they would want to attack us, and what we can do to help with the former and aleviate the latter." That is what wealthy, capable people with any shred of human decency do with their wealth and power. They use it to solve world problems. They do not use it to lock down their private property like some kind of gated community with nukes and spend the rest of their existence gaining more wealth and building higher walls and larger weapons to fight off poor nations just looking to get some respect.

So I hope Americans will turn off the rantings of Fox News and Rush Limbaugh and recognize that although we have freedom of speech, there is a big difference between listening to a man who chooses his words carefully and thoughtfully with the best intentions for everyone involved, and listening to rich, paranoid chickenshits who can't comprehend that they have a better chance of dying on their way to work in a traffic jam than they do getting bombed by an angry nation looking for attention. Thus, Obama can chill out and work on making friends and preventing all of the other "fates worse than death" that occur within our own boarders everyday. Everyone dies. More people die everyday from cigarette smoking, heart disease, traffic accidents, etcetera, etcetera than died in the 9/11 bombings. They aren't always as violent and flashy, but the people die all the same. So if one is that concerned and afraid of another attack, there is no logical reason why one would not be very concerned with our failing health care system, with our poor laws of preventing greenhouse emissions, and with our poor laws for reducing health risks before they happen. No one wants to have to pass legislation to make people do what is best for them and for society as a whole. Things run much more smoothly when people educate themselves and do these things of their own accord. However, people don't. Americans misuse and abuse their freedoms to do what ever they damn well please. This is dysfunctional. This is what caused the plethora of crises we are experiencing now and this is why we are likely to see a multitude of regulations placed on everyone to get things back to good. It's not socialism. It's not tyranny. It's one confident guy standing up and saying, "Look you morons, think about the big picture. Is it really worth having freedom if your nation is full of sick and dying, uneducated, frightened people? If everyone in the world wants to kill us for acting like arrogant assholes? Is that really something we can be proud of? Is that really an enjoyable way to spend our lives and the message we want to send to our children? No. So either get your shit together and learn about what's going on outside your own little narcissistic wonderland, or we're going to have to pass laws that wake you up and re-engage you in reality. That's what the majority of the country voted for. That's what I'm going to do." I for one could not be more proud. Everyday I am more amazed with Obama's boldness and intelligent ways of handling problems. I hope others agree and that we get eight wonderful years of this and, fate willing, another eight after that and after that and after that.